Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a formable bone plate, a clamping apparatus, an osteotomy system and a method for small bone reconstruction. Such a plate, apparatus, system and method provide a surgeon with implants and instruments necessary to perform reconstructive bone surgery (osteotomies and fusions) of the small bones of the upper extremity or other parts of the human body, which could eventually include wrist, hand, maxillofacial, foot and ankle surgery.
Description of the Related Art
Typical formable bone plates are formed of nodes that provide for screw or pin type of mechanical attachment to the bone and internodes or webs that provide an area more easily deformed, as well as, connection and structural support between nodes.
Some devices exist to form or shape plates, but some are difficult to use and/or don't give the surgeon optimal forming or shaping control. Ideally, to form the plate, it is optimal to rotate or torque a node in one or more of the X, Y or Z axis while at least one other node is held firmly in place and isolated from the bending forces. This is particularly important if the node that the surgeon wants to isolate has already been affixed to the bone with a screw; otherwise, the bending forces will transmit to the screw and potentially cause pull-out of the same or damage to the bone. In some existing devices and methods, such as disclosed by Huebner in U.S. Pat. No. 7,189,237 the bending forces are not applied at the node, but instead are applied at the internodes or webs. This approach does not fully isolate a node where a screw has been placed from the bending forces, since the node itself is not held firmly. In other existing devices, the node that the surgeon may want to isolate would be held in place by threading a tool or a tool accepting socket into that node. However, this becomes a practical impossibility if a screw has already been affixed to the bone in that node, because the screw occupies the space and the thread where the tool or the tool accepting socket would normally be threaded. That precludes the possibility of isolating a node that has already been affixed to the bone from bending forces.